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8 days ago

Paul Pierce’s Contract: Dispelling The Myths and Stating The Facts

The first domino to fall this offseason is Paul Pierce’s contract. Until Danny Ainge figures out what he’s doing there, little else matters. As we wait for this decision, we also must face the rest of the offseason, which means it is also rumor season. With that time of year, comes plenty of information floating [...]

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8 days ago

Final Grade: Avery Bradley (C+)

In his third year in the league, in which promising players often make brash leaps from benchwarmer to starter, from starter to star, Avery Bradley took a big step back. But his regression might be deceptive. When he returned to the Celtics’ lineup on January the 2nd after two in-season months recovering from offseason shoulder [...]

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9 days ago

Danny Ainge Expects Doc Rivers & Kevin Garnett To Return, Unsure About Paul Pierce

A long, challenging offseason awaits Danny Ainge this summer. Before he dives in head first, he joined Salk and Holley on WEEI-FM 93.7 to discuss the multitude of decisions facing him this offseason, as well as the progress of Rajon Rondo in his rehab from ACL surgery. A few of the notable highlights from the interview. Ainge [...]

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9 days ago

Suns Hire Away Celtics’ Assistant GM Ryan McDonough

In one way or another, there will be change this offseason in Boston. That process started in the past couple days, with the first piece moving out coming as a name most C’s fans might not be familiar with. Yet, it was Celtics’ assistant general manager Ryan McDonough, one of Danny Ainge’s top lieutenants, who [...]

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10 days ago

Doc Rivers Finishes 13th in Coach of the Year Voting

It was a tough season for the Boston Celtics, and that includes for head coach Doc Rivers. The long-time coach battled to find the right fit for a lot of new pieces that were both underperforming and/or failed to pick up his schemes on both ends of the floor. Naturally, an unfortunate plethora of injuries [...]

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11 days ago

Overconfident Answers To Offseason Questions (Part 1)

It seems like every offseason since 2010 we’ve been through this: a myriad of questions and concerns about the Celtics’ roster that usually involve the possibility of the core of the team being dismantled. As we head into the summer of 2013, we’ve got a whole batch of questions, many of which will be familiar.  [...]

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Greg Oden Is Still Considering Signing with Celtics?

The Celtics met with Greg Oden in Waltham a few weeks back, as the former NBA center who hasn’t played in the league in over two years considers his options for NBA teams. Now there’s a new report from Shaun Powell, a former reporter from NBA.com who’s very “plugged in” over what teams Oden is still considering. Boston is still on the list.

The fact Oden is going to wait until the free agent period this summer is very interesting, but makes sense. There was some speculation he’d sign with a team now to help himself get acclimated for next year, but upon further reflection, it’s clear no team he was seriously interested in could afford sacrificing a roster spot for him this season (the C’s certainly couldn’t).

So what kind of money would the Celtics be able to offer Oden in a contract this summer?Probably not much more than the veteran’s minimum to be perfectly honest. Unless Danny Ainge does some serious wheeling and dealing to clear some cap space, the C’s will be well over the salary cap and could already be approaching the luxury tax with nearly every rotation player on the roster already signed for next season, short of Chris Wilcox.

The Celtics will either have the mid-level exception at five million dollars, or the mini mid-level (3 million dollars) depending on who they decide to keep around before the free agency period. There’s also a five million dollar buyout option for Paul Pierce that needs to be exercised in June, but the way he’s playing right now, I highly doubt Ainge would just let him walk to save cash and clear cap space, as he’s still playing some of the best ball of his career right now.

Put it all together, and unless it’s for the veteran’s minimum or bi-annual exception (1.9 million), I highly doubt we see the Celtics sign Oden next year for anything more than that. They can’t afford to give much more to a player with such a high injury risk with so little money to use in free agency next year.

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